News & Features

When the US Open Junior Championships kick off Sunday, two boys and two girls will be seeking their second junior slam singles title and with it, a boost toward the coveted year-end title of ITF World Junior Champion.

Peliwo, an 18-year-old from Vancouver, is going for a grand slam of sorts, as he has reached the final of the previous three junior majors, breaking through for the win at Wimbledon over defending champion Luke Saville of Australia, who is not entered in New York.

Despite that impressive streak, Peliwo will not be the top seed, with Coppejans, also 18, claiming that spot after winning the European Junior Championship in July on clay. Sixteen-year-old Gianluigi Quinzi of Italy will be seeded third, and his semifinal showing at Wimbledon indicates he can handle faster surfaces, despite his excellent results on clay.

It's rare for a boy to be seeded in a junior slam based on his ATP ranking, but that is the case this year for 18-year-old Thiago Monteiro of Brazil. Although his ITF junior ranking of 179 is unimpressive, Monteiro is 413 on the ATP computer, which will earn him the fourth seed in the US Open Junior Championships. Monteiro won a Futures event in May and reached the final of another Futures earlier this month, both in his home country, but his record in junior slams is only 4-7, and he was upset in the first round in New York last year.

The top-seeded American will be Mitchell Krueger, who reached the semifinals at both the French Open juniors and Wimbledon this year. Krueger also collected a confidence-boosting win in the US Open men's qualifying round last week, with the 18-year-old wild card defeating No. 23 seed Martin Alund of Argentina 6-3, 6-3.

Sixteen-year-old Noah Rubin, a New Yorker who began his rapid rise up the ITF junior rankings less than a year ago, and 17-year-old Mackenzie McDonald of Northern California will also be seeded.